


The Best Things Are Never Planned

by Bamboozled_and_Alone



Series: Marvel/DC Crossovers [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV)
Genre: And an assassin boi, Damian Wayne is Bad at Feelings, Damian Wayne is Not Robin, Damian is nine, Damian is planning some murder because he's bby but still an assassin, Damian probably really needs a hug, Entirely self indulgence, Human Disaster Matt Murdock, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Matt Murdock is Daredevil, Matt is trying his best, Maybe they'll get one idk I haven't gotten there yet, Oh and the Hand are involved too I guess, Protective Matt Murdock, so does matt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:01:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24909619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bamboozled_and_Alone/pseuds/Bamboozled_and_Alone
Summary: Talia owes the Hand a favor.She makes the mistake of underestimating an assignment, and hands it off to Damian, thinking he'll be able to handle it easily.As Damian quickly finds out, just because someone is blind, doesn't mean they are defenseless.Matt's only question is what he's going to do about this nine year old assassin who still very much wants to kill him. He decides to take him home.
Relationships: Matt Murdock & Damian Wayne
Series: Marvel/DC Crossovers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802476
Comments: 57
Kudos: 267





	1. Nothing More Than A Minor Setback

Damian scours down at the streets below from his perch on the corner of a rooftop. He was on a mission, and he couldn’t disappoint his mother. Or the Hand, for that matter. Those were the ones who had technically assigned the mission, after all.

Damian had known that the League of Assassins had had the technology necessary for dimensional travel for  _ centuries _ , but he hadn’t known that the League and this Hand had been… communicating for all of that time. In fact, he hadn’t known a thing about the Hand until just a few days prior, when his mother had told him of his assignment. Apparently she owed the Hand a favor, and she felt that the mission would be suitable for her young son. 

The Hand were a bit miffed when Damian had arrived rather than Talia herself, but a letter written in her handwriting and bearing his grandfather’s seal was enough to convince them. If Talia had thought her nine year old son to be up to the task, then the Hand would at least give him a chance. And Damian was absolutely determined to make sure they wouldn’t regret that decision. He’d prove he could do it. 

The assignment? Simple. Kill Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer. Damian was a bit miffed at the idea that the Hand had cashed in their favor on  _ that _ . Surely it couldn’t be  _ that _ hard. 

Damian pauses when he catches sight of his target. The man certainly looks harmless. He walks down the street, tapping a stick on the ground as he does, eyes covered by a pair of thick red lensed glasses. He had strict instructions to make it look like an accident if in public. Damian toys with the idea of waiting until Murdock was alone so that he could stab him himself, but the sooner he got this over with, the better. His mother was not the most patient woman in the world.

Damian drops down to street level. He hated wearing… civilian clothing. The jeans were tight against his waist, and combined with the dark oversized hoodie, his movement was not at optimal levels. However, it would have to do. 

Damian runs through the crowd, heading straight for the blind man. There was a semi truck conveniently heading down the street. If Damian’s timing was perfect, which it of course would be, he could simply push the blind man into the semi. 

The only flaw in his plan was that the blind man side steps out of Damian’s way before he could do anything. Unprepared, Damian embarrassingly lands on the ground, hitting it with his shoulder hard. He blinks. His arm was definitely bleeding, but it wasn’t the worst pain he’d ever felt.

“Are you alright?” Murdock tilts his head, pausing, his eyes facing Damian’s general location, but not quite hitting the mark. 

“Tt,” Damian stands back up without so much as a wince, even if it did hurt. “I’m fine.”

Damian turns around and heads into an alley, not so much as hesitating as he climbs up a fire escape and onto the roof. He pears over the edge, catching sight of Murdock easily. The man was not hard to pick out from a crowd. 

Obviously pushing the man in front of a semi hadn’t gone the way Damian had hoped it would. Unfortunate, but a minor setback. He could always find another way. 

The man suddenly takes a sharp turn into an alleyway. Damian perks up. Maybe having missed the semi was a good thing. Nobody would be watching in an alley. Damian wouldn’t  _ have _ to make it look like an accident in the alleyway. 

Damian drops down silently, landing lightly on the edge of a dumpster. He watches for a second, eyes narrowed. Murdock pauses, and Damian can’t tell if it’s because he can tell he’s there, or if it’s some other reason. 

He finds out it’s the former when the man speaks. “You’re just a kid.”

Damian jumps to the ground, pulling out his sword. “I am not a child!” He shouts out, utterly offended at the  _ audacity _ of the man. A  _ kid? _ Him? 

“Right,” The man turns around with a frown, facing Damian’s direction. “Do I get to at least know who’s going to try and kill me then?”

“Tt. I am Damian Al Ghul, heir to the Demon’s Head. You should be  _ honored _ to be killed by me,” Damian spits out, and then he lunges. 

To Damian’s utter surprise, the man manages to dodge. Damian suddenly finds himself with a jab to the ribs. He hisses, spinning around to find Murdock in a defensive stance. 

“Listen kid, I don’t want to hurt you,” Murdock frowns. 

“Then you will perish,” Damian lunges yet again, using his smaller size to his advantage. He manages to give the man a good slice on his leg. Unfortunately, it does little to slow the older man down. 

"Somehow I doubt that," The man grunts, using his stick to knock the sword from Damian’s hand. The nine year old gains a sinking realization as to why the Hand had pawned this assignment off to the League of Assassins. Nevertheless, he'd somehow find a way to best the man. He glances down at the sword on the ground, and then at the bright red mark on his hand where the stick had hit. The man speaks again, standing in a defensive stance. "I  _ really _ don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to."

Damian frowns. He had a feeling the man wasn't kidding about that. But Damian had been hurt before. He doubted this man would be able to do anything worse than what he'd already endured. So he attacks again, forgetting about the sword. 

The man is good. Too good. Damian can't figure out how to get any hits in that will actually manage to do some damage. Beyond that, the man's fighting style is distinctly unfamiliar to Damian, and he's mastered quite a few different styles. He gets whacked with the stick again, this time in the stomach. That was another advantage this man had: a weapon. 

Damian puts up one hell of a fight, but it's not enough. He goes down hard, and Murdock places a heavy foot over his chest to keep him in place. That's when the unexpected happens. The man steps off, holding out a hand for Damian. 

Damian  _ could _ attack again, but he's not so arrogant that he can't admit when he is beaten. 

The man pulls Damian to his feet and then grabs the sword. "Care to explain why you were trying to kill me, kid?"

Damian bristles at being called a kid. He was  _ not  _ a kid. He was nine years old and a  _ very _ skilled warrior. And skilled warriors did  _ not _ explain their actions. 

Murdock sighs after almost a full minute of silence from Damian. "Fine. It doesn't matter. Just…" He seems contemplative for a moment as he tilts his head. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

Damian blinks at the man. He had not been expecting that. "Somewhere... Safe?" 

The man nods. "Do you have a name?"

"Damian," He says, a little quietly. Murdock hums in acknowledgement. 

"Hello, Damian, I'm Matt."

"I am aware of who you are, Murdock," Damian says flatly, fixing the man with a sharp glare. 

"...Right," Murdock nods slowly before he starts walking towards the exit of the alley, back to the busy streets of New York. Damian follows behind him, using a tactic he knew wouldn't have worked if he were older. If he acts like the innocent child this man seems to think he is, then maybe,  _ just maybe _ , he might be able to infiltrate this man's defenses and kill him when he least expects it. 

The man tilts his head a little at Damian. “Are you hungry?” 

Damian pauses slightly. “No.” He was, but it was of no importance. Food could wait until his mission was complete. 

Murdock twitches his lips upwards, just a little bit, before he hums. “Well, that’s a shame, because  _ I _ am. Do you like burgers?” 

Damian’s brow furrows as he looks at Murdock in confusion. “Burgers?”

“It’s settled then,” Murdock nods sharply. “Burgers.” 


	2. Burgers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt is very, very concerned. As he should be.

Matt frowns at the kid in front of him. He had  _ no _ idea what he was going to do with him.

The boy was small, somewhere around eight to eleven if he had to guess. Definitely not twelve, and he seemed just a  _ little _ too big to be seven. Although Matt figures he might be wrong. Still, the kid is obviously trained, that much he can tell from his steady heart rate and even simply from the way he breathed. This kid had been trained. This  _ kid _ had been trained, and  _ harshly. _

Matt grits his teeth a little bit. He knew one thing for sure. Wherever this kid had come from, he was  _ not _ going back. Not while Matt was still breathing, at least. The way the kid’s muscles tensed as if preparing to be attacked every time they passed another person on the street just about broke his heart.

They get to a small diner, one of the few burger joints Matt could actually stand to eat at. He finds the corner booth, and sits down on the end facing the door, nodding at Damian to sit at the end by the wall. He thought the kid might have an easier time relaxing a little if he could see the door. 

A waitress walks over, three or four pencils in hair that smells like she uses expensive products and showers twice daily. Her face stretches into what Matt can only assume is a beautiful smile as she sets some menus down. “Hello, welcome to Molly’s Diner! I’m Lily and I’ll be your waitress today.”

“Thank you, Lily,” Matt gives her a small smile and nod. Damian’s still tense, and Matt can practically feel his seering glare directed at Lily. If the woman notices, she doesn’t comment. 

“I’ll give you two a few minutes to decide and be right back with you,” Lily hums, spinning around, tossing her hair behind her back as she walks away. 

Matt puts his face towards the menu, but he obviously doesn’t read it. “You can order anything you want,” He adds, for Damian’s sake. 

Damian picks up the menu, his brows creasing as he stares. “I do not know what any of this is,” He frowns, setting the menu down. Matt blinks. That was unexpected. Didn’t most kids know what a hamburger was, at least?

“Do you want a hamburger? It’s a type of sandwich,” Matt hums a little, tilting his head to the side. Damian considers for a moment. 

“Alright,” He huffs. “I suppose a hamburger will do.” 

Matt nods. “Anything to drink?”

“Water,” Damian frowns a little. Matt nods again, and leans back in his seat as he waits. 

Lily the waitress returns not a moment too soon, yet another pencil in her hair and another in her hand as she holds out a notepad. “Alright, are the two of you ready to order then?”

Matt nods sharply. “Yes, two hamburgers, water to drink please.”

Lily nods, writing that down. “Do you want any fries to go with that?”

Matt tilts his head in Damian’s direction. “Just one,” He decides with a small hum. That way if Damian ended up not liking them, Matt wouldn’t be stuck eating too many. If Damian  _ did _ like them, then Matt was fine not getting any at all. 

Lily the waitress nods and then walks away, heading towards the kitchen. Matt tilts his head at Damian. 

“I don’t suppose I get to know  _ why _ you were trying to kill me?” He hums, keeping his voice low so that he wouldn’t be overheard. 

“You are an assignment,” Damian simply shrugs. He wasn’t lying, but Matt can’t help but grit his teeth a little bit. Who would hire a  _ child _ to kill someone? Who would  _ train _ a child to kill? The very idea of it all made his stomach churn. 

“Right,” Matt says after a moment, keeping his expression calm. 

They sit there in silence for a few moments, until the waitress comes back with their food. Damian stares at the hamburger on his plate, and then pushes it towards Matt. “You are expendable.”

Matt blinks a little, but he picks up the hamburger, takes a bite, and then hands it back. Damian waits calmly, watching for any signs from Matt that it was poisoned. Once he’s satisfied that the burger won’t immediately kill him, Damian picks the hamburger up and finishes the rest. 

Matt calmly eats his own hamburger, and Damian makes him do the same with the fries and water. The kid eats most of the fries after that. 

“Was the food up to your standards then?” Matt hums after Damian’s finished, tilting his head a little. 

“It was different than what I am used to,” Damian looks down at the empty plate. “But I suppose it was not unsatisfactory.”

Matt nods. He didn’t want to leave just yet. He had to think of  _ somewhere _ to put the kid. The gym didn’t have any running water and wasn’t exactly a good place to hide. He didn’t want to bring Foggy into this. Anyone who came looking for Damian would absolutely check a hotel right off the bat. His apartment… Would work if he absolutely had to, but the thought of bringing a stranger, a dangerous one at that, into his home made him grimace, even if it  _ was _ a kid. 

With a heavy sigh, Matt stands up. He couldn’t think of a better option. “Come on, let’s go.”

He pays, leaving Lily the waitress a tip, and then heads out onto the street. He’d just have to suck it up and take Damian to the apartment. That just so happened to be the safest option at the moment. 

Damian walks along with him. He still tenses every time they walk past someone else, but at the very least, he doesn’t seem concerned with Matt hurting him at all, and that’s what’s important at the moment. 

What was he going to do with this kid?

Matt sighs again, running a hand through his hair as he taps the street with his cane. He gets to his apartment building and frowns a little. Once he showed the kid where he lives, he can’t take that back. 

Matt bites his lip a little as he takes Damian to the elevator. 

The whole ride up is silent except for the shrieking of the elevator as it goes up, but Matt had a feeling it was just  _ him _ hearing that particular noise. It was an annoyance, but he’d gotten over it before, and he’d get over it again, and again, and again. 

Matt heads out of the elevator the second that the doors are open, Damian hot on his heels. Matt finds the keys in his pocket, then pulls it out and unlocks the front door. He holds it open for Damian, and the boy steps in, entirely unconcerned. 

“You live here?” Damian asks, and Matt can just  _ tell _ the kid is raising an eyebrow at him. 

“Yes, I do,” Matt nods sharply. “Why?” 

Damian looks around, then sucks in a breath. “It’s small compared to what I am used to, and very… plain.”

Well at least he was honest. Matt hums, tilting his head a little. “I’m blind, Damian.”

“And?”

“It’s plain because I can’t see.”

“That is not an excuse, Murdock,” Damian tuts, walking through the house as if he owned the place. Not that Matt minded too much. If Damian felt like he could safely be here, then that made his job that much easier. 

“And what  _ would _ be a proper excuse, hm?” Matt decides to humor the kid, smirking a little. 

“There is none,” Damian says flatly, turning to face Matt. 

Matt continues on as if he hadn’t said anything at all. He wasn’t foolish enough to let his guard down around the kid though. He could hear his heartbeat. The kid was  _ definitely _ still planning on killing him, and simply biding his time, probably waiting for an opportune moment. Matt wasn’t planning on giving it to him. 

“You can take the bed, I’ll stay on the couch in the living room. The bathroom is next to the bedroom, and there’s extra towels under the sink if you want to take a shower,” Matt shows him where everything is. “Later we can get you some extra clothes, that way you have something to change into, yeah?”

Damian simply crosses his arms. “Alright.”

Matt smiles a little. “Perfect. And I’ll make dinner. What would you like?”

Damian pauses. He thinks about it for a second before he shrugs a little. 

“My choice then?” 

“As long as it is edible,” Damian gives him a suspicious frown. 

“Don’t you think that if I were planning on killing you I’d have done it by now?” Matt raises an eyebrow, trying to hide his smirk. Damian does not seem amused by that as he huffs, turning away from him. 

“Am I allowed to leave?” He asks after a moment, standing by the window. Matt pauses. He didn’t really want the kid to leave. He couldn’t keep tabs on him if he left. That, and he  _ really _ didn’t like the idea of him going back to whoever it was that he’d been with before. 

“You’re  _ allowed _ to,” Matt forces himself to say. He wasn’t going to make the kid stay here if he really didn’t want to. But there was a huge pang in his heart. If the kid went back, he might never see him again, and the kid might be stuck as a killer for the rest of his life with no knowledge of what it was like to  _ not _ be one. “But I’d prefer it if you didn’t. 

Damian nods a little, still facing the window. Matt could only imagine what it was that the kid was looking at. 

“If you want, I could get you something to do while we get you some new clothes,” Matt offers. “I don’t really have much in the form of… entertainment.”

Damian hums, not paying him much attention. 

“Is that a yes?”

“I suppose,” Damian says distractedly. Matt tilts his head.

“What are you looking at?”

Damian pauses a little. Matt listens to what was going on outside when he hears it. Laughter. A group of kids that were playing together in the streets. “I’m not sure,” Is Damian’s answer as he tilts his head. “I do not understand what they are doing. Training would be my best guess, but if it  _ is _ training, then I do not know what they would be training for, and their movements are  _ quite _ sloppy, Murdock.”

Another pang hits Matt’s heart. “Have you ever done anything that wasn’t training, Damian? Something that you just did because you wanted to?”

Damian squints. “Why would I have any reason to do such a thing?” 

Matt only hums. If he ever found out who had done this to the kid, he was going to  _ beat them to the ground _ . He didn’t care  _ who _ it was. 

“Murdock.”

“Hm?” 

“Why do you prefer I not leave?” Damian asks calmly, but Matt can sense the suspicious undertone in his voice. He was worried. 

Matt doesn’t know how to answer that one in any way that Damian might understand. So he doesn’t. “It’s usually frowned upon to send kids as young as you out on their own,” He says instead. 

“Tt. I am not a child,” Damian huffs. 

“Well, not a child, we should probably get you into some new clothes, what do you think?” Matt heads back for the door again, and Damian follows with a deep frown. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the beautiful comments on the last chapter!!! I was gonna wait a week or something to post this but you guys made me cry from happiness so I posted this early.


	3. Damian's Very Slight Existential Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian doesn't udnerstand Matt Murdock. Not that it's easy.

Damian did not understand Murdock. 

The man was… suspicious, for lack of a better word. He had brought him to his home. He knew Damian was trying to kill him. Why would he do that? The only logical thing that Damian could think of was that this was some sort of trap. 

They had come home with a few different outfits, a notebook with some pencils, and a few books that had seemed interesting enough. Damian wasn’t entirely sure why Matt had insisted on it. Damian would be leaving as soon as he’d killed the man. Maybe this was some form of manipulation? Did Murdock think that getting him these items would convince Damian to spare his life? 

Damian figures there’s no use in saying no to the items. After all, he  _ is _ still planning on finishing the job. 

Murdock leads him back to the small apartment, and he clears out one of his drawers so Damian can set his clothes in there. 

“Go take a shower,” Murdock hums. “I’ll get started on dinner while you do that, alright?”

“You are  _ not _ in command of me,” Damian frowns at him. Murdock shrugs a little. 

“It was more a suggestion than a command, Damian. I’m not going to  _ force _ you to go take a shower. If you really don’t want to, then that’s up to you. But if you  _ don’t _ , you’re going to start to stink.”

Damian scowls, and goes off to take a shower. 

When he steps out, wearing the new clothes that Murdock had purchased for him, dinner was ready. This was an opportunity. 

Damian pulls out a small capsule of poison he’d had on his person. For emergencies, obviously. His mother would be proud. Murdock sets two plates down, and Damian waits for him to go back into the kitchen to grab glasses of water before he gets up. He drizzles the stuff onto Murdock’s plate. He wasn’t sure what  _ kind _ of poison it was. Just that it should work. The second the vial is empty, Damian sits back at the other plate. 

Murdock comes back, and to Damian’s horror, he has a third plate of food with him as he sets down the glasses. He pushes the poisoned plate away as he raises an eyebrow, sitting down. “Damian.”

“Yes, Murdock?” Damian tries to sound as innocent as possible. 

Murdock sighs, shaking his head as he starts eating. Damian doesn’t touch his food. “Do you need me to take a bite first?”

Damian nods, pushing the plate forward. 

“You know, that’s quite hypocritical of you, considering you poisoned  _ my _ plate,” Murdock points out. 

Damian doesn’t say anything to that, frowning a little. Murdock takes a generous bite of everything on his plate, and then gives Damian the plate back. 

“The water as well, Murdock.” Damian huffs, and the man sighs as he takes the glass too. It fades to awkward silence. Murdock doesn’t seem to know what to say, and if Damian’s being honest, he doesn’t either. 

It’s eventually Damian who breaks the silence. “Who is it that trained you to fight, Murdock?”

Murdock seems to stiffen a little before he sighs heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Let’s just say it was an as-” He cuts himself off. “Uh. Let’s just say it was a man who I’d rather not meet again, and leave it at that.”

“Did you disappoint him?” Damian raises an eyebrow. 

“Actually,” Matt hums. “He occasionally still shows up practically begging for me to go back. I suppose I  _ did _ disappoint him at one point though. He thought I was weak, and left, and then he came back when I proved him wrong.”

Damian nods slowly, soaking that information in. He still wanted to ask how Matt had managed to dodge the semi, and how he managed to fight so well while also being blind, and a whole slew of other questions, but he held back. It wouldn’t matter after a few days anyways, because the man would be dead. The less he knew about him, the better. Damian found it easier to kill a man he didn’t know. 

Damian finishes his food quietly. Once he’s done, he stands and walks towards the bedroom, glancing back at Murdock, who wasn’t quite done yet. He needed to plan.

Poison had obviously not worked. He wasn’t going to get the element of surprise, either. He was clearly better skilled in combat, though Damian loathed admitting it. That wasn’t going to work either. His best bet  _ now _ would be to simply wait until the man was asleep and kill him then. It wasn’t a very solid plan, but he couldn’t think of a better one, so it would have to do for now. 

Damian searches the room. He checks to make sure it isn’t bugged, he thoroughly looks for any traps that might be set up, anything that might suggest that Murdock had given him the bedroom with an ulterior motive. When he finds none, he’s… slightly confused. Why would Murdock have chosen the couch if it were not to attempt to trick him into something? 

Murdock himself walks into the room a little while later, as Damian is determinedly checking under the bed yet again. There had to be  _ something _ that was off. 

“You alright?” Murdock hums, and Damian does  _ not _ jump in surprise and hit his head against the bed frame. He scrambles out from there, standing on his feet, back straight, as he calmly looks at the man in front of him. 

“I am perfectly fine.”

“Uh huh. What were you doing under the bed?” Murdock tilts his head a little. His tone conveys that it’s out of curiosity rather than a warning to not go under the bed. 

“I was…” Damian pauses, not entirely sure what to say. Should he accuse Murdock of trying to trick him with staying in the bedroom somehow? But he really didn’t have enough evidence to sufficiently make that claim, and then Murdock would think he was stupid. This made Damian pause  _ again _ , because why the hell did he care what Murdock thought if he was going to kill the man soon enough anyways?

“You were…?” Murdock interrupts a moment later. 

“Checking,” Damian says, a little slowly, eyeing Murdock with slight distrust. 

“Checking for what?” Murdock hums, and Damian  _ swears _ the man is amused by all of this. 

Damian sucks in a sharp breath. “I was simply making sure that there was nothing here that would… cause me harm.”

Murdock nods a little, accepting that as he walks towards the bathroom, closing the door. Damian sighs in slight relief, and then finishes up his sweep of under the bed before he flops down on top of it with a heavy sigh. What would his mother think of all of this? Would she be proud? Or would she be unhappy with the fact that Damian hadn’t already completed his mission?

Murdock passes through the room again, but to Damian’s relief, he doesn’t say anything this time. 

It’s almost a whole hour later before Damian finally resigns himself to grabbing the notebook and pencils that Murdock had purchased for him earlier. He was bored, and Murdock was clearly not asleep yet, sitting at the table, running his hand over what Damian assumes to be braille. 

Damian sketches an apple he’d found at the counter. He then looks it over with a slight glare, trying to determine if it’s edible. He decides that Murdock couldn’t possibly have known that Damian would take  _ this _ specific apple, and he really wouldn’t risk poisoning  _ all _ the apples,  _ and  _ there was a good chance that Damian would be able to survive, even if it was poisoned. It would hurt. But he’d survive. 

Damian huffs a little. He wasn’t sure what to draw this time. 

“Are you okay in there?” Murdock hums from the living room, but he makes sure it’s loud enough to be heard. Damian pauses for a second. 

“I am fine, Murdock,” He huffs out, crossing his arms. 

“Just checking.”

Damian rolls his eyes. Why  _ wouldn’t _ he be fine? He obviously wasn’t being attacked. In fact, the most likely person  _ to _ attack him at the current moment was Murdock. He was a little confused on that front. 

Damian huffs and picks up the notebook again. Perhaps he’d simply try drawing again. That had seemed to pass the time fairly well. He glances up at the closed door after a while, eyes starting to droop. He was tired, but he wasn’t so sure he would be safe sleeping. After all, Murdock could simply be waiting to kill  _ him _ in his sleep. It might have been a bit hypocritical on his part, considering that was  _ exactly _ what he planned to do to the man, but still.

Damian, of course, falls asleep anyways. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stayed up until 3:30 again writing sorry not sorr


	4. Business as Usual

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt tries to figure life out. Tries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead. Had this written like a week ago but have a strict "must have the next chapter written before you can publish the chapter you already have written" policy. Btw the next chapter is gonna be REAL short. Thank you for all the comments and for putting up with my "must publish at 3:30 am every single time" ness. :)

Matt gives a sigh in relief when the kid’s breathing finally evens out. He’d thought he’d be stuck in the apartment  _ forever _ . 

Slipping into his Daredevil gear doesn’t take long, and climbing up to the roof takes even less. He cocks his head to the side as he listens. He keeps an ear out for the kid. He wanted to be home before he woke up, if at all possible. 

There’s a shrill scream, and the sound of shattering glass, both at the same time. Matt chooses to follow the sound of the scream, deciding someone’s life was a higher priority. 

Racing across the rooftops causes his heart beat to accelerate, Matt quickly finding the source. He leaps down, punching a man who had some wrongful intentions as the young woman behind him quickly runs off, obviously terrified. Matt doesn’t stick around either. That shattering glass had been nearby…

It’s almost three hours before Matt hears something from back in his own apartment. The first telltale signs that Damian is waking up. With a sigh, the man hurries back home.

Slipping through the window, Matt listens carefully. Damian was now awake, but he hadn’t left the bedroom yet, which was good. Grabbing his clothes, Matt changes in the hall by the front door. That way if the kid wakes up, Matt half naked and half in his Daredevil suit wouldn’t be the first thing he sees. 

Matt pulls a t-shirt over his head  _ right _ as the door to the bedroom opens. 

Damian sneaks out of the bedroom quietly, and Matt raises an eyebrow when he realizes the kid has a knife in his hands. There’s a pause when Damian gets to the living room. Obviously he had expected Matt to be sleeping on the couch then. 

“...Murdock?”

“Hm?” Matt walks out from the hall casually, hands in the pockets of his sweatpants. He leaves the Daredevil suit in the corner for now. He’d prefer if the kid  _ didn’t _ know about his nightly routine. At least not while he was still planning on murdering him.

The knife disappears fast. Not that it much matters for Matt anyways, but the kid hadn’t seemed to quite grasp the concept of ‘blind’ yet. 

Damian clears his throat. “I was just wondering where it was that you had gone, that is all.”   
  


“Oh,” Matt nods a little. “I was just talking to someone at the door. They were trying to sell a magazine, and it took a minute to convince them that I would have absolutely no use for a magazine.”

The lie slips off his tongue easily, and Damian seems to buy it. 

“Alright.”

“You okay?” Matt hums. “You weren’t asleep for very long.”

Damian scowls a little at him. “I am trained to be efficient on less sleep.”

Matt raises an eyebrow at him. “I can guarantee you, that is  _ not _ true. You might be able to think straight, but you can’t just sleep for three hours every night. Eventually you’ll wear yourself out and collapse, kid.”   
  


“I’m  _ not _ a child.”

“How old are you?”

“I am nine years old,” Damian huffs. 

“And by  _ legal _ definition, a child. A very  _ skilled  _ child, but still technically a child.”

Damian crosses his arms with a frown, and Matt can tell he’s being glared at. “You’re wrong.”

“You wouldn’t be as offended as you are if you didn’t deep down know it was true,” Matt smirks, shrugging a little bit. “How about you put on some pajamas, at least. You don’t have to necessarily go to sleep, but it is late.”

This was probably putting him higher on the kid’s hit list than he already was, but the kid clenching his jaw and turning around, heading back to the bedroom to change into pajamas, was somewhat amusing. 

Matt can hear Damian as he clambers back onto the bed. He was just a little too far away to be able to make out his facial expression, but Matt had a feeling it was a cross between a scowl and a pout. 

What  _ was _ he going to do with the kid?

There’s no way he can simply call CPS on this one. He had a feeling that the kid wouldn’t feel bad about hurting anyone who got in his way, and that was the  _ kid _ . There was also the fact that whoever trained him was going to come looking for him one of these days. He wasn’t so sure if he should use the word parents. There was always a chance that the kid had been taken from them, or that they were dead, or all sorts of different scenarios. No, sticking with ‘the person who had trained him’ was a lot easier. 

None of his thoughts can bring him to a clear answer to his question though. Matt purses his lips, listening as the heartbeat slowly steadies out again. It really hadn’t taken long. For now, he’d just have to keep him. At least until he could figure out somewhere that wouldn’t be endangering the kid  _ or _ other people. 

Matt pauses. What was he going to do when he had to show up to work on Monday? He couldn’t bring Damian along. Foggy would have a fit about bringing a kid to a law firm, for starters, but that wasn’t what Matt was most worried about. If he brought Damian with him, then that would mean Foggy would quickly become a target if the person who’d trained the kid decides to come back. Karen too. That, and Damian was still very much dangerous, and he quite honestly didn’t want his friends anywhere near him until Matt could make sure that they weren’t going to come into any harm. 

There was no way in hell he was going to even  _ try _ getting a babysitter.

With a heavy sigh, Matt dials up Foggy.

“What the hell, Matt? It’s two o'clock in the morning. Are you in a dumpster again?”

“No, Foggy, I’m fine,” Matt gives a small chuckle, the corners of his lips twitching upwards in a smile for half a second before it fades. “Listen, I don’t think I’m going to be able to come into work for the next few days.”

“Matt-”

“I’m not hurt,” He interrupts quickly, knowing that was the most likely conclusion his friend would come to. “It’s just… well…”

“Is it Devil business?” Foggy huffs over the phone.

“No. Kind of. Not  _ really _ . I can do work from home if you send some files over.”

“Maybe I will if you tell me why you need to stay home,” Foggy’s voice is a little flat, clearly leaning into the idea of Matt being injured. 

“There’s this kid,” Matt sighs.

“Matthew Murdock, is that a soft spot we’ve discovered here?” Foggy teases lightly.

“No. You didn’t let me finish.”

“Alright, alright, fine. Do continue.”

“There’s this kid,” Matt repeats. “And I’m not pulling your leg when I tell you this, Foggy, he’s a fully trained assassin.”

“Right, of course, because nothing is ever normal with you.”

“He’s also trying to kill me,” Matt adds.

“Who isn’t?”

“Very funny. But I almost got pushed into a semi, attacked with a  _ sword _ , poisoned, and I’m pretty sure he’s waiting for me to go to sleep so he can slit my throat or something. I only survived because I’m better,” Matt hums. 

“You’re better. Oh so humble.”

“Foggy, this is serious. I don’t want him to know who you are, or Karen for that matter. I have a feeling he’s the kind of person who would try to kill you to get to me, and I know it hurts to hear it, but I really don’t want that to happen.”

“I bet it hurt you more to say it.”

Matt pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can I stay home from the office or not, Foggy?”

“Fine. Is it cool if I drop by Monday morning to drop off some files then?”

“I’ll make sure you aren’t stabbed,” Matt nods. Not that Foggy can really tell over the phone.

“That would be greatly appreciated. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going back to the sleep that was so rudely interrupted.”

“Goodnight, Foggy.”

“Goodnight, Matt. And get some sleep yourself. Just don’t, y’know, let the kid kill you while you do.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Matt says, right before Foggy hangs up. 

Matt does, eventually, go to sleep. It’s not a heavy sleep, but it is sleep.


	5. Legends Never Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's really short but the next one is much longer I promise.

Damian awakens after dawn. He’s genuinely surprised he was able to sleep at all, let alone go back to sleep after he’d already woken up. He peeks out into the living room and gives a small sigh when he notices that Murdock is, yet again, very much not asleep. 

“Do you want breakfast?” Murdock asks from the kitchen. 

“...I suppose,” Damian wasn’t going to ask how the man had known he was awake. He  _ says  _ he can’t see. Damian is not so sure he believes it. 

Murdock sets a plate down on the table, taking a few bites from it when he’s sure Damian is watching, and then walks back into the kitchen and comes back with his own plate. Damian reluctantly sits across from him.

“Did you sleep alright?” Murdock hums. Damian gives a small nod. He really shouldn’t be talking to the man. He should be dead by now. His mother would be disappointed. 

Damian eats quietly, staring at the plate in front of him. What  _ would _ his mother say? Likely nothing good. She’d probably be annoyed at how long it was taking Damian. 

Murdock tilts his head a little. “Something wrong?”

“No.”

“You’re just not as vocal as you were yesterday,” Murdock shrugs a little. 

“Tt,” Damian huffs, crossing his arms. “And is that a crime, Murdock?”

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” Murdock chuckles a little, and Damian fails to find what is funny in his statement. “I was just wondering. It’s okay not to talk if you don’t want to though.”

Damian nods sharply and continues eating. Murdock doesn’t say anything more until they’re both finished. He stands, taking the dishes over to the sink where he immediately begins working on washing them. “What do you want to do today?” 

Damian blinks a little, tilting his head. 

“I figure you can’t just stay inside my apartment  _ all _ the time,” Murdock sighs, leaning against the counter. “So, what do you want to do today?”

“Do you mean training?” Damian furrows his brow in confusion. He had no clue what Murdock was getting at. 

“No, I don’t mean training,” Murdock frowns. “What do you usually do for fun?”

“Train.”

“Besides training.”

Damian tilts his head to the side. What was there to do beyond training? Perhaps reading, but usually that wasn’t for fun and more because his mother told him to read it. He’d never really done  _ anything _ that his mother hadn’t told him to do before, now that he actually thought about it. It was… different, not having his mother around at the moment. 

Murdock was strange. He was  _ very _ different from Damian’s mother. For starters, he did not kill people, a very strange concept to Damian. He also kept trying to get  _ Damian _ to make decisions. It was very confusing. 

Damian had to admit, as confusing as it might be, it was kind of… nice. 

If his mother ever found out that he had so much as  _ thought _ that, he would probably regret everything that had led up to that moment. 

But his mother wasn’t here.

Damian huffs a little. He’d have to kill Murdock, and go back.  _ Eventually _ . He blinks at that. His mother  _ did _ like things being quick, but… well, it wasn’t  _ Damian’s _ fault he wasn’t making any progress anyways, was it? Murdock was always evading his attempts anyways. Damian could simply wait for an opportunity and strike when Murdock was least expecting it. That could work, and his mother would  _ never _ have to know about it. 

“Are you going to answer that question?” Murdock breaks through his thoughts. Damian blinks a little. 

“I… Do not know, Murdock,” He huffs out, crossing his arms. 

Murdock nods slowly, not looking entirely surprised. “Well… We could… Go to the park?”

Damian stares at him for a minute. “The park?”

“Yes. And the fact that you had no idea what that was just cemented that idea. We will go to the park and… Yeah. We’ll go to the park.”

“Alright,” Damian sighs. He really hoped he wasn’t going to regret this. 


	6. I Scream You Scream We All Scream Cause We're Terrified

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Chapter title shamelessly stolen from Forest by TOP. Does not entirely pertain to the chapter).
> 
> Matt hopes he won't regret this.

Matt really hopes he won't regret this.

The park had been the first thing that had popped into mind that hadn’t seemed like an utter nightmare for his senses. At least at the park he could keep an eye on the kid. Figuratively, of course. 

Matt finishes washing the dishes from breakfast and then heads into his room to get dressed and ready to go. Damian is quick to follow in his footsteps, changing in the bathroom while Matt got dressed in the bedroom. Matt holds still while Damian forces a comb through his hair, stating that “At least one thing might look adequate,” and then the two of them are off onto the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. 

Again, Matt really hopes he’s not going to regret this. 

Damian walks along next to Matt, still stiff of a board, and definitely not trusting any of the people passing by not to suddenly launch an attack. That was okay, for now. They could work on it later. Unless Damian miraculously manages to kill Matt, but the man had a feeling that it wouldn’t be happening, no matter what the kid’s plans were. 

They get to the park and Damian pauses, watching a small group of kids on the playground. Matt can hear laughter and the beats of excited small hearts, and squeals of delight, sometimes yelps of surprise. One girl is telling a younger boy he’s building a sand castle wrong, but the boy seems to be a little  _ too _ young to understand her constructive criticism. Another kid ends up slipping on the cement, scraping their knee and crying for their mother, who quickly runs over.

“Murdock, I thought you understood my terms of me not being a child,” Damian huffs after a minute. He tries to sound mad about it, but Matt can tell he’s really not. There’s a sense of curiosity in the kid’s voice. 

“There’s plenty of  _ other _ things to do at the park. You don’t  _ have _ to go over there. We can simply walk around, or you could defeat me at chess a few hundred times,” Matt hums. Not that he could very well play chess at all, since he couldn’t tell where the squares would be on the board. 

Damian gives the playground one last glance before he starts walking with a small huff. “Murdock, why did you bring me here?” 

“You want the truth?” Damian nods. “Well… Truth is, Damian, I didn’t want you to be stuck in the apartment all day. And the park is a  _ great _ way to get some fresh air…” 

“Tt,” Damian rolls his eyes. “We’re in the city, Murdock. How fresh could the air really be?”

Matt chuckles. “Good point.” 

Damian continues walking along, staying on the sidewalk path that went through the park. Matt sticks close to him. The kid was, well, somewhat dangerous. It wasn’t that Matt didn’t  _ trust _ him to be alone at the park, but… well. He didn’t quite trust the kid to be alone at the park. Yet. He was sure he would be able to eventually, but… Today was simply not that day. 

“Murdock?” Damian pauses. 

“Hm?” 

“There was something small and… weird looking. It just ran across the path. What was that?” Damian’s focus seems to be on a bush, and Matt stops to listen. He can hear a tiny heartbeat that he recognizes fairly easily to be a squirrel. He tells Damian as much, the kid tilting his head a little with curiosity. 

“I have never witnessed a squirrel before…” He points out after a second, keeping his voice a little quiet. He plops down on the grass, and Matt hears the scraping of claws on a tree trunk as the squirrel makes its way up. 

“Damian, do you want to keep walking, or sit here for a little while?” Matt hums, offering Damian the choice. Either one was fine with him. 

“It is quite enjoyable right here,” Damian shrugs a little. Matt nods, and sits down next to him. Well, not  _ quite _ next to him. The kid still wanted to kill him, so Matt left a little more than a foot of distance between them. That seemed to be just fine with Damian, though. 

“See any more squirrels?” Matt hums, and the swooshing of air to his left tells him that Damian was shaking his head a little. “Hmm. I’m sure you’ll get to see another one soon though, they’re  _ everywhere _ at the park.” 

“Right,” Damian nods once. His attention seems focused elsewhere, his head tilted back towards the path again. “Murdock, that is a  _ very _ large squirrel.”

Matt processes just what it is the kid had said before he listens and- That was not a squirrel. He was right in it being very large, though. It was a dog, walking next to a woman who had him on a leash. “That is a dog, actually.”

“A dog?” Damian tilts his head a little. 

“A dog,” Matt nods. “A lot of people keep them as pets. Sometimes for companionship, and some people even keep them as service animals.”

Foggy was always pestering Matt to get a dog. Matt did not want a dog. Hearing Damian’s tiny heartbeat speed up a little when the dog got closer… Did not change his mind. But maybe he’d have to consider getting…  _ something _ for the kid. This was the biggest reaction he’d heard from the kid so far, and it was amazing. 

Damian looks over at Matt after a minute, standing up. “I wish to begin walking again.”

“Alright, let’s get walking again then,” Matt stands up after him. His knee pops a little with the effort as he does, and Matt sighs a little with the realization that he’s getting older. 

Damian hums, and it’s a beat before Matt realizes they are following the person with the dog. They’re going the exact pace and with just the right distance that Matt would have if he were following a gangster and didn’t want to get caught, and it hits Matt again that, yes, this kid was very well trained, and very skilled. 

“Damian.”

“Yes?”

“Is there a reason we are following the dog?” Matt hums a little. Damian freezes for a second. 

“We are not following the dog,” He lies smoothly. Matt can still hear the ever so slight change in heart rate though, and is not fooled. 

“If you’re sure,” Matt sighs, deciding not to argue with the kid. It wasn’t  _ that _ big of a deal. This  _ did _ give him an idea for the next time they left the apartment.

After a little while, Matt stops. “Are you ready to go?”

The woman with the dog was right at the edge of the park anyways, and likely wouldn’t be there for much longer. 

“I suppose,” Damian sighs heavily.

“Tell you what,” Matt hums a little. “We can go get ice cream, if you’d like.”

“Ice cream?”

“Alright, yeah, we’re definitely getting ice cream,” Matt nods determinedly. “You’ve at least got to  _ try  _ it.”

“Alright…” Damian raises an eyebrow at him. Matt heads back out of the park and onto the main street, and Damian sticks close, following behind him. Matt finds a good ice cream shop only two blocks away, one he’d been to many times.

Matt can still remember what the place had looked like back when he was young, even if the memory was faded and a little hard to picture. He did remember quite a bit of neon green, and he was fairly certain there had been some sort of mural on the wall. He can’t remember what the mural was of, though. He’s not even sure if they had changed the chairs by now. Still, it was somewhere he remembered fondly.

The place smelled of ice cream, obviously, and there was also an air freshener plugged into the wall that gave the place an overpowering aroma of an artificial beach. There were a few people at some tables, but other than that the place was empty. Matt guides Damian up to the counter, and looks down at him. “You can get any flavor you want. Alright?”

Matt orders a simple vanilla for himself.

Damian takes much longer to choose. He paces the case, head tilted a little before his face turns back to face Matt. “I think I will simply get… whatever it was that you were getting.”

Matt nods, adding another vanilla, and the woman at the counter hands the cones over to him, Matt trading them for his credit card. He gets his card back, tells the woman no for a receipt, and then guides Damian to an empty table. 

Matt holds the second cone out for Damian, who crosses his arms. Matt pauses, sighs, and takes a bite to prove it’s not poisoned before giving it back to Damian again. This time, it’s accepted. 

And that’s when Matt hears the kid’s heart skip a beat. 

Damian’s eyes have gone wide. “You called this ice cream, correct?”

“Mhmm.”

Damian nods slowly. “It is enjoyable, Murdock.”

Matt figures that’s as close of a thank you as he’s going to get. He smiles a little at Damian. “Well, in that case, you’re welcome. If I’m still alive next week, maybe we’ll come back.”

Damian frowns, but he eventually gives a heavy sigh. “We shall see.”

“ _ You  _ will see. I’m blind,” Matt jokes slightly. Damian seems to simply stare at him, and it’s a second before Matt realizes the kid hadn’t gotten it. All well. At least Matt can know in his heart that if Foggy had been there, he would have laughed. 

“Murdock, did you know that… igneous rocks come from molten materials?” Damian hums. Matt blinks. This was the first time the kid had ever actually initiated a conversation that seemed fairly casual. 

“Um. No, I did not,” Matt lies, for the sake of hoping that Damian would talk about something. It seems to work, as that is all the prompting that the kid needs to launch into talking about igneous rocks. 

“I have a  _ doctorate  _ in geology if I so wished,” Damian puffs his chest out with pride, but he pauses for a moment. “Except for the fact that mother killed my instructor.”

Matt blinks. That had taken an unexpected turn. “So your… mother is the one who trained you then?”

Damian nods. “For the most part, yes. My grandfather participates occasionally, along with other instructors.”

“Right…” Matt frowns a little. He didn’t like that. He really didn’t like that at all. “You do know that killing is usually… frowned upon, in most places, right?”

Damian shrugs a little. 

Matt sighs. They could work on morals later. He had a feeling one conversation wasn’t going to change the kid’s mind. “Anyways. I believe you were telling me about rocks.”

Damian nods slightly, continuing on. Matt listens, occasionally licking his ice cream. The kid was smart, and definitely knew more about rocks than Matt did, that was for sure. Damian continues explaining in harsh detail, all the while with a stoic and serious tone. Sometimes, with the way that the kid phrased things, Matt could almost forget that it was a nine year old telling him this. 

“Do you collect rocks at all?” Matt asks after a minute. “I know a lot of people do.”

“I… Do not,” Damian pauses. He tilts his head a little, thinking. “Do you think I should?”

“Well, you… Seem to really like rocks?” Matt shrugs a little. “That’s up to you if you want to or not. But you could, and you seem to know enough you could probably label all the kinds you find.”

Damian nods slowly, letting that sink in before he stands up. “I am finished,” He declares. 

“Grab your napkin and put it in the trash can,” Matt hums, standing up as well, pushing his chair back under the table where it belonged. He briefly wonders if they’re still bright green, and considers asking Damian before he decides against it. Maybe he would ask another time. 

Damian grabs the napkin, throwing it away before he heads straight for the door, and Matt has to jog for a second to catch up to him. “Murdock, I am going to look for the dog again.”

“Actually,” Matt hums. “How about we go home, and then  _ tomorrow _ , I know a place that has  _ lots _ of dogs. What do you think?”

Damian pauses to consider this before he nods sharply. “Alright.”

Matt nods, sighing a little as they walk back towards the apartment. “Sounds good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie I could have had this out like a week ago but I finished writing at late o clock and promptly passed out and forgot about it so you're getting it now. Enjoy.


	7. Damian + Dogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian really likes dogs. It's not rocket science.

Damian blinks awake the next morning, and is quick to leap to his feet. He heads into the living room. Murdock is… asleep. On the couch. 

Damian looks down, pulling out his knife as he takes a step forward. This was his chance. He hesitates, though. Murdock had said he knew where there would be  _ lots _ of dogs, and Damian had to admit, he was quite intrigued. If he killed the man now, there would be no visitation of these dogs. Damian very much wanted to visit the dogs. 

With a heavy sigh, Damian puts the knife back and walks over to Murdock. “You are not awake.”

Murdock stirs, rubbing his eye a little. “I’m ‘wake,” He yawns, sitting up.

Damian sighs again. “You said that you would show me the dogs.”

Murdock pauses for a minute, before he nods slowly. “I… Did say that.”

“Well then let us go and visit the dogs, Murdock.”

“Don’t you want to eat breakfast first?” Murdock raises an eyebrow at him, stretching his arms upwards. Damian huffs, crossing his arms before he relents, going over and sitting at the table. Murdock walks into the kitchen and grabs a pan from the drying rack, setting it on the stove. “If you want, you can help, and then you’ll know for  _ sure _ that it’s not poisoned.”

Damian pauses, tilting his head a little as he walks over to Murdock curiously. “And what exactly would I need to do?”

Murdock hums, and takes a bowl from one of the cabinets. He then grabs a carton of eggs from the fridge. “Put two eggs in the bowl.”

Damian blinks, doing just that. Murdock pauses. “Um. That’s on me, I wasn’t very clear on instructions. Damian, you need to… crack the eggs first, so that everything  _ inside _ goes into the bowl, and then you throw the egg shell in the trash.”

“Oh.”

Damian frowns in concentration, focusing very hard on his task. He didn’t want to mess this up. He hadn’t angered Murdock so far, but he was positive he did not want to set the man off with how skilled he was. He carefully hits the edge of one of the eggs on the bowl, splitting it open and dumping the contents in. He gives a small sigh of relief when he realizes that it was much easier than he had anticipated the task being, and he does the other much faster.

Murdock gives him a nod. “Good job. There’s measuring cups in the drawer to the left. You need one cup of milk, which is in the fridge. Okay?”

Damian nods sharply. He opens the drawer and pauses. There were a lot of utensils he was not familiar with in there. 

“It looks kind of like this, but it’s a little bigger,” Murdock picks up the ¼ measuring cup with a small hum, and then goes back to mixing something in his own bowl. “It’s labelled, if that helps.”

Damian nods, looking through the drawer again. He finds it quickly, and he holds it out to Murdock. “Is this the correct one?”

Murdock takes it, runs his finger over the label, and nods. “Yep, that’s the one.”

Damian turns back towards the fridge. The milk was easy enough to find, being right in the front, and Damian pulls it out. It’s a little heavier than he’d been expecting it to be, but he managed it fine, pouring it into the cup.

Unfortunately, Damian makes a bit of a miscalculation, and pours the milk in too quickly. It sends the cup flying onto the floor, milk getting everywhere, and Damian absolutely freezes, his grip on the milk jug tightening.

Murdock pauses. Damian sucks in a breath, closing his eyes and tensing. He just wanted to get over with whatever punishment Murdock was going to deal out quickly. 

Damian peaks an eye open after a second. Murdock was rummaging through a drawer, and then he pulls out a towel, holding it out to Damian with a small smile. “Next time, you might want to hold the measuring cup in place.”

Damian stares at Murdock before he slowly reaches for the small dish cloth. He blinks a few times before he quickly begins wiping up the spilled milk, and then he hands Murdock the towel again, biting his lip a little. Murdock simply throws it in the sink. “Do you want me to hold the measuring cup for you while you pour the milk in?”

Damian gives a slow nod, not really sure what else to do as he grabs the milk jug again. This time, he fills the measuring cup up perfectly, and Murdock picks it up and throws it in with the eggs, and then tosses in some butter. He takes the bowl, mixing it’s contents with the ones in the other bowl, and then he takes the measuring cups, scoops some out, and puts it on the pan. It sizzles for a second before it quiets down again, and Murdock holds out a spatula to Damian. “Do you want to flip it?”

Damian blinks, taking the spatula from him. He reaches out, but Murdock gently pulls his hand away. “Not  _ yet _ . You have to give it a second to cook. I’ll tell you when.”

“Alright,” Damian purses his lips, waiting. He watches the mixture with a dedicated gaze, noting the small bubbles that start forming across the surface. 

“Okay, you can flip it now,” Murdock hums, and Damian does. He lands it perfectly, and looks back at Murdock, who gives him a nod. “Nice job. I don’t know too many people who can land a pancake on their first try.”

“Tt. Of course I can do it,” Damian crosses his arms, spatula still in one hand. Murdock smirks.

“Well, I figured you could.”

Murdock suddenly pauses. He puts more of the mixture back on the pan. “You know what the other one looked like when you flipped it?”

Damian nods. 

“Great. I’ll be right back,” He starts walking towards the door, and not a second later is there a knock. 

Damian can faintly hear the conversation, and he tilts his head slightly. 

“Hey, Foggy.”

“Matt. How you doing?” An unfamiliar voice hums. Damian pauses, curious, but he keeps his watch over the pancake currently cooking. 

“I’m fine, thanks,” Matt chuckles a little. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m great. I brought the files.”

“Perfect,  _ thank you _ , Foggy. It really means a lot.”

“So, the kid you mentioned, do I get to meet him?” Damian pauses. Murdock had mentioned him to this man?

“Maybe sometime. Not… Today,” Murdock sighs, and Damian can hear it all the way from the kitchen. “Although I am positive he is listening in.” 

Damian stiffens a little. He flips the pancake. Murdock and the Foggy character talk for a second before there’s a quick goodbye, and Murdock walks back into the kitchen. 

“Who was that?” Damian demands, taking the pancake off the pan. Murdock adds more of the mixture. 

“My… Coworker. Foggy,” Murdock hums.

“Coworker?” Damian raises an eyebrow. He didn’t know what that meant. 

“We’re business partners,” Murdock explains. “We have a law firm.”

“A… Law firm?” Damian blinks. 

“Mhm. We’re lawyers.”

“...Right,” Damian nods slowly. He had no idea what a lawyer was.

They finish with making breakfast, and Damian sits down at the table, carrying his plate over there. He hesitates for a second, but he takes a bite without giving it to Murdock first. After all, he was fairly certain he would have noticed if the man had put anything in it. 

Damian finishes quickly, and then stands up, heading towards the door. “Alright, now let us go and find the dogs.”

“Okay, okay,” Murdock sighs heavily and takes one last bite before he takes the dishes over to the sink at a pace that Damian finds to be slower than a snail. He huffs, waiting by the door with his arms crossed over his chest. Murdock finally gets over to it, grabbing his cane and sunglasses before they head out. 

Damian works on memorizing the path to where these dogs supposedly were. 

The place Murdock leads him to has a sign that says Hell’s Kitchen Pet Shop on the door. Damian blinks a few times, and Murdock opens the door. 

The place has isles of oddly shaped items, and an aroma that was unfamiliar to Damian in the air. It was overall clean, with a couple of other people scattered around the small store. Damian tilts his head slightly at the blue tanks to the side, and he starts in that direction, mesmerized by the colorful fish swimming back and forth. 

Murdock hums from behind him, tilting his head to the side. “You know, the dogs are over this way.” 

Damian abandons the fish immediately, spinning on his heel to go in that direction. He widens his eyes when he sees a line of windows. There were about six dogs there, two of them that were much larger than the others. They had clipboards filled with basic information hanging on the walls next to each window. Damian steps closer. 

“They are all so… different from each other,” Damian tilts his head slightly. Some of them were smaller. They were all shaped differently. One of them had long hair, the other shorter…

Damian puts his hand against one of the windows, eyes wide with wonder. The dog on the other side wags his tail, stepping closer to the window. Damian lets out a breathy chuckle, still staring. “They are…  _ beautiful _ , Murdock.”

“What do they look like?” Murdock asks from behind him, his head tilted a little to the side, a faint smile on his face. Damian blinks a few times before he remembers what Murdock had said about being blind. 

“Well. This one is large and brown, with longer fur, and…” He pauses, tilting his head. “The ears are pointed downward? The one next to it has ears that stick straight up, and-” 

Damian describes all six of the dogs there, and then Murdock suggests they look at the cats next, and Damian stares once again at another creature that held absolute beauty. He hadn’t ever seen a dog or a cat before. He briefly wonders if his mother knew about them. If she did, why hadn’t he ever heard of them? 

They look at all of the other animals there, Damian dutifully describing their appearances to Murdock. The parakeets closer to the front were all a mix of vibrant colors that were so saturated that Damian couldn’t believe they were the natural colors of the bird’s feathers. There were mice, too, and Damian quickly recognizes them as the same creatures he has, occasionally, seen around Infinity Island. Snakes are also something he can identify, but he’d never known that they could get so… small.

It takes a full three hours before Damian finally relents to leaving the store behind and going back towards the apartment. He was very much glad he hadn’t slit Murdock’s throat this morning, even  _ if _ his mother would be disappointed in him. There was always tomorrow for that, anyways. 

Damian sucks in a breath, following Murdock down the streets of New York. He decides that he very much likes dogs, and voices that opinion to Murdock.

“I thought you would, considering you were following the one at the park earlier,” Murdock nods with a small chuckle, tapping his cane across the sidewalk as they go. 

Damian hums. Murdock’s days might be numbered, but Damian was  _ glad _ his mother had assigned  _ him _ with this assignment. The dogs had definitely been worth it to him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I'm back!! I've had this one written for like a month, but just barely got done writing the next chapter. So. (Next one is a doozy btw. Be prepared.) Anyways thank you guys for being so patient!! 
> 
> I'm probably going to be rewriting this entire story once it's finished because I just reread it all today and hoo boy is it a mess. But it's my mess so I still love it. Anyways! Have a good day!! (Or night).


	8. 0.0'

Matt listens to Damian’s heartbeat as they walk back. The kid seems… happy, for the first time since Matt has met him. Genuine, real happiness. 

The three painful hours of sitting in the pet shop with all sorts of…  _ disgusting _ smells had been worth it, in the end. Matt listens to the kid as he talks about how he once got to ride a war horse. It makes Matt frown a little, because the kid was  _ nine _ , but Damian was very enthusiastic about this, so Matt doesn’t say anything about it. It didn’t matter at this current moment anyways. 

“What do you want for lunch when we get back?” Matt asks as they walk, tapping the cane against the pavement. Damian gives him a small shrug. “My choice again then? Alright… How about sandwiches?”

“Alright,” Damian nods sharply. “...May I help make them?”

Matt blinks, stopping in his tracks. That was surprising. Not unpleasant in the least, but definitely still surprising. “Of course you can.”

Damian hums, his heartbeat keeping it’s content rhythm. Matt can’t help but smile at him. 

That smile fades when he hears someone approaching them. They don’t seem friendly either, marching past with an intense purpose. Matt frowns. There were more people in the alley and- 

The man suddenly shoves Matt towards said alley. He would have dodged if he hadn’t been so concerned about the others in the alley. 

There’s now four people around him. Damian stands off to the side, probably more confused than concerned. Matt simply sighs. This would be more annoying than anything.

And then someone grabs  _ Damian _ and puts a knife to his throat. 

“Wallet, or the kid gets it,” The guy threatens darkly. Matt sucks in a sharp breath, a mixture of worry and anger surging through him, because really, who threatened a  _ nine year old _ over something like that? He tenses, trying to think about the best way to go about this without getting Damian hurt.

Before Matt can really do anything about it though, there’s a sharp snap. Damian had grabbed the man’s hand, broken it, and then-

Matt freezes as Damian brings the knife straight through the man’s heart. 

The other men back up, their heart rates picking up in a new sense of fear. Damian has the knife again, spinning it dangerously in his hands before it’s thrown through the air. Matt tries to grab it, but it’s going a little too fast for him and another member of the group falls. Matt clenches his jaw tightly, spinning towards Damian. 

The rest of the group  _ runs _ , and Matt lets them go. Damian almost chases after them, but Matt grabs him by the shoulder. It’s kind of tight at first, and Matt winces as he loosens his grip. 

“Damian-” He frowns. He shakes his head, leading him back onto the street and towards the apartment again, still trying to process what exactly had just  _ happened _ . 

There were two people dead now. That was on  _ him _ . He’d known Damian was dangerous. He should have… He shouldn't have…

Matt bites his lip, getting into the apartment. The worst part, he thinks, is the fact that Damian seems utterly unaffected by the event. 

Matt runs a hand through his hair, turning his face towards Damian. “What were you  _ thinking?!” _

He tries not to yell, but he has a feeling it was probably a yell as Damian shrinks. Matt feels a little bad about that. He sighs. “Sorry. I’m just- You  _ killed them _ , Damian. Do you realize that?”

Damian nods. “Of course. They were threatening me, so I took action.”

Matt’s brow pinches as he gives Damian a stern look. “You didn’t have to kill them. You could have gotten out without doing so, easily. The second one was  _ backing off!” _

Damian simply stares at him.

Matt huffs, heading towards the bathroom. He… Should calm himself down before he does something he regrets. He  _ really _ hopes that cops aren’t going to show up at his apartment door. “Just… Stay in the apartment. I’m going to take a shower, and then we’ll talk when I get out.”

Matt takes his time with the shower before he steps out. He gets dressed, but he doesn’t leave the bathroom just yet, leaning against the counter at the sink. What was he  _ supposed _ to do? The kid had  _ killed _ people. And Damian didn’t even seem to  _ realize- _

Matt’s anger suddenly changes direction. The kid was  _ confused _ . He didn’t even  _ realize _ what he’d done, did he? This was the fault of whoever had trained him more than it was Damian’s. 

Matt didn’t know if he should be angry or  _ sad _ right now. Could he be both? 

Matt stands up and heads back into the living room, where Damian is sitting perfectly still on the couch, completely unconcerned. He didn’t seem affected by the events that had taken place even a  _ little _ bit. 

“Damian…” Matt sighs heavily. “Listen, alright? You can’t kill. When you’re with me out there, you can’t  _ kill anyone. _ And I mean  _ anybody _ , alright? Not even muggers. Unless it’s an  _ absolute _ last resort, okay?”

Damian blinks a few times. 

“If you try, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop you,” Matt adds. “I’ll  _ try  _ not to hurt you to do that, but if it comes to saving a life, I might have to. Do you understand that?”

Matt didn’t want to hurt this kid. He  _ really _ didn’t. In fact, despite the odds of it all, Matt quite liked Damian. Whether he’d been sent to kill him or not. But he knew for a fact he couldn’t just stand by and let Damian hurt  _ other _ people. 

Damian moves ever so slightly. “I do not understand. Why would I not? I am going to be leading the League of Assassins one day, Murdock. I think it would be hypocritical if I commanded an army but refused to take action myself.”

Not if Matt could help it, he wouldn’t be. But he had a feeling if he said that out loud, all it would ignite would be an argument.

“Fine. You don’t have to understand just yet, okay? Just… Don’t kill anyone here. The dogs don’t like killers very much.”

That makes Damian pause. “The dogs don’t…” 

Matt nods seriously. 

“Oh. I… Suppose that I can… Take a break from my efforts,” Damian frowns. “For the dogs.”

“Thank you, Damian. I appreciate it.”

“Why do  _ you _ appreciate it? I already told you, I am doing it for the dogs.”

Matt cracks a smile. It fades. Two people weren’t going home today, or ever. And it was just as much  _ his _ fault as it was Damian’s. He could have saved them. 

He should have. 

Matt shakes his head. He couldn’t exactly do anything about it now. And it was… bad, to dwell on what could have happened instead of what did. He sucks in a breath and starts walking towards the kitchen.

“How about we go and make those sandwiches then?”

Damian hops off the couch at that, standing behind him. “How?”

Matt pauses. He’d never thought that he’d have to explain how to make a sandwich to someone before. It’s moments like these that make him realize that despite his serious demeanor and insistence that he’s not, Damian very much  _ is _ a kid. A kid who had killed two people without so much as a blink, but a kid nonetheless. 

“Wash your hands first,” Matt sighs, doing that exact motion himself. Damian nods and gets right to that. Matt grabs the bread, and the rest of the supplies. Damian listens intently, doing whatever Matt does, and ending up with a nearly identical sandwich by the end of it. He doesn’t hesitate to eat it. Matt gives the kid a small smile. Helping to make the food did seem to help Damian be able to trust eating it.

Matt walks over to the couch with his sandwich, taking a bite out of it as he does. Damian follows him over, the sandwich already gone. “You can make yourself another one if you’re still hungry,” Matt hums, leaning back. 

Damian pauses, seeming to consider it, before there’s a whoosh of air that tells Matt the kid was shaking his head. “I am fine.”

“Okay,” Matt nods, finishing up his own sandwich. Damian clambers up onto the couch next to him. Matt simply listens to the kid’s heartbeat for a minute. If he ever found the people who trained him…

There was going to be a lot of ass-kicking on Matt’s part, that’s for sure. 

“I am bored, Murdock,” Damian announces after another few minutes. That causes Matt to pause. 

“Do you want to draw?”

Damian shakes his head with a small huff. Matt frowns. What  _ else _ was there for the nine year old to do? He’d offer to go back to the park but… Leaving the house hadn’t exactly turned out very well the last time. He was going to avoid doing that for a while, if he could help it. But keeping the kid occupied was going to be a challenge. 

What did nine year olds even  _ do? _

Matt can’t honestly remember much about being nine. That was when he’d been blinded, and beyond the event itself, he really couldn’t remember a whole lot about it, and certainly not much about what he’d done back then. He shakes his

“Um. What would you  _ want _ to do?” Matt asks, tilting his head. Damian shrugs, which was quite unhelpful. 

“What is there  _ to _ do, Murdock?”

That was, quite honestly, a good question.

“Um. If you want, I can call Foggy and ask if he has any ideas?” Matt internally winces. 

“Your business partner Foggy?” Damian tilts his head.

“That would be the one,” Matt nods slowly, standing up. “I’ll… Go and call him then.”

Matt heads over to his room, closing the door as he pulls out his phone. He calls Foggy up, leaning against the wall with a heavy sigh. It rings once, twice, three times before Foggy answers. 

“Matt?” Foggy hums in greeting.

“Hey, Foggy. Uh. I have a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

Matt sucks in a sharp breath. “How would you… Entertain a nine year old assassin without leaving the apartment?”

“Oh boy. Uh. Hm,” Foggy goes quiet for a moment. “I have some video games?”

“Foggy, I don’t have anything to hook video games up to.”

“Not all video games require a TV, Matt. Just relax, Uncle Foggy has it all under control.”

Matt pauses. “Did… Did you seriously just refer to yourself as  _ Uncle Foggy _ ?” 

“It is a creative choice, Matt, and to be honest, one that I most likely will not be repeating. I’ll stop by later with some stuff, alright? I’ll see you then.”

“Thank you, Foggy.”

“Hey, anytime alright?” Foggy hums, right before he hangs up. Matt sighs, leaning against the wall. Now all he had to do was entertain the kid for a few hours until Foggy came over.

The idea of introducing Damian to his friend right after Damian had killed two people earlier makes Matt frown, but he didn’t want the assassin kid to be bored like this too much. Bored assassin children hardly seems like a wise idea. He’ll just have to keep a close ear on the kid while Foggy is here.


	9. Uncle Foggy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy brings Damian something to keep him occupied :P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey thanks for all of the awesome comments! I've had this chapter written for at least a week and forgot to post it, so sorry folks. I hope you guys all enjoy!

There's a knock on the door. Damian tilts his head from his spot on the couch, looking over curiously. Murdock walks over, stepping out from the bedroom and walking straight past Damian. 

Someone steps into the room, holding a small box in his hands. “Hey Matt,” The man hums, and Damian blinks. He recognized the voice. The man had come over earlier that morning. 

“Foggy,” Murdock dips his head in acknowledgement, walking back over. He subtly stands between the man and Damian. Damian doesn’t fail to notice this. 

“You must be Damian,” The man offers him a warm and large smile. “I’m Foggy, Matt’s friend.”

Damian raises an eyebrow, looking over at Murdock. “I thought you said he was your business partner?”

Murdock sighs, crossing his arms. Foggy lets out a small chuckle, glancing at Matt. “That is true, we are very much business partners. But you  _ can _ be friends and business partners at the same time.”

Damian ponders this for a moment before he nods. “I suppose that is acceptable.”

After all, his mother worked with ‘friends’ all the time, such as Deathstroke or Chesire. There was something strange about Foggy and Murdock, however, and that was the fact that they seemed to not mind being in each other’s company. Damian didn’t understand that. His mother  _ always _ complained after a mission with one of  _ her _ friends. Especially if it was Wilson. 

Foggy hums, and then he hands Damian the box. “Here,  _ this _ is for you.”

Damian frowns at the box. He doesn’t dare touch it. He didn’t necessarily trust this man. After all, his mother never trusted  _ her _ friends. There was no reason to trust a friend of Murdock’s. 

Murdock takes the box from Foggy and opens it with a sigh. He holds out a sleek looking rectangle out to Damian, who blinks at it. 

“It’s a DS,” Foggy explains.

“It’s so that you have something to do,” Murdock explains. “I… Realize I don’t have a whole lot here in the form of entertainment. So Foggy brought this over for you so that you wouldn’t be bored.”

Damian slowly, carefully, reaches out to take it. “This is a metal box,” He says flatly, trying to mask his absolute confusion as best he could. Foggy snorts, plopping down on the couch. He leaves about a foot of room between him and Damian, which is appreciated. 

“May I?” Foggy holds out a hand for the device. Damian passes it over with a raised eyebrow. Foggy opens it, revealing the screen and buttons on the inside. Damian doesn’t understand until the screen flickers to life. He stares in absolute amazement. He’d seen computer screens before, but this was entirely different.

For starters, the pictures that appeared on the screen were clearly not from a security camera.

Damian stares in bewilderment, inching ever so slightly closer to Foggy, who explains how to play the game. After a few minutes, the device is passed back. Damian blinks. “Think you can try?” Foggy hums encouragingly.

Damian was not going to  _ try _ . Damian was going to do it, and he was going to do it to the best of his ability. He was an Al Ghul, after all. 

The small character on the screen moves as Damian presses on an arrow key. He stares for a second before his face contorts into an expression of pure focus as he gets straight to mastering the controls. Foggy watches over his shoulder for a minute before he stands back up and walks towards Murdock. Damian pays them no mind as they walk into the kitchen, presumably to talk without Damian overhearing anything.

Normally, he would be curious. Right now, however, the brown mushroom creatures were going to perish. 

Eventually, Foggy walks back over to him. Damian pauses, looking up at him. “Well, Damian, I have to go. But there’s some more games in the box, okay?”

There were  _ more?  _ Damian blinks, glancing over at the box. He quickly looks back at Foggy, giving him a sharp nod. 

Foggy grins, holding out a hand. “It has been a pleasure to get to meet you, Damian.”

Damian hesitates before he shakes it. He doesn’t say anything, still giving Foggy a distrustful look. He lets go, and Foggy heads towards the door. “Oh, and Matt! Don’t forget, we’ve got a meeting with Mrs. Sanchez Thursday afternoon. You’ve got to come to the office for that one.”

“I’ll be there,” Murdock promises, still standing in the kitchen. 

“You better be, or I’m coming to hunt you down,” Foggy teases lightly as he steps out of the apartment. Damian stares at the door for another few seconds before he goes back to the… DS. 

It’s a little over an hour before Damian gets to a decent stopping point. He closes the DS and sets it back in the small box with the games. Murdock is at the table, running a hand over a braille document. His head tilts ever so slightly in Damian’s direction.

“Was that any fun?” Murdock hums, his hand still sliding over the bumpy surface. 

Damian pauses. “...Fun?”

“Yeah. Was it fun?”

“What is  _ that _ supposed to mean?” Damian huffs, frowning. Murdock’s hand stops traveling his document. He’s quiet for a moment, obviously thinking. 

“Did you find it  _ enjoyable _ ?” Murdock rephrases, his head turning to face Damian.

Damian stares at him blankly for a moment. Why did that matter? Murdock sighs heavily, shaking his head. Damian bites his lip in concern. Had he done something wrong? 

“Are you alright, Damian?” Murdock asks after a moment. “Your heartbeat kind of sped up for a moment there.” 

Damian blinks. “My heartbeat…?”

Murdock hums. “Your heartbeat. I can uh… Hear it. I hear a lot better than most people.”

Damian considers this for a moment. His mother  _ had _ told him that Superman had  _ exceptional _ hearing beyond anything any mere human could ever understand. But did that mean that Murdock was an alien like Superman was? He voices that question, and Murdock simply chuckles and shakes his head. 

“No, I’m not an alien like-” Murdock suddenly pauses. “Who’s Superman?”

Damian blinks at him. He blinks again. How did Murdock  _ not _ know who Superman is?  _ Everyone _ knew who Superman was. Including Damian, which was  _ really _ saying something. Damian sucks in a sharp breath. “Superman is the last son of Krypton, an alien planet that my mother says exploded years ago. He leads the Justice League, of which one of my mother’s greatest enemies,  _ Batman _ , is a part of. I know of him because he is a potential threat.”

“Right,” Murdock furrows his brow. “Damian… Do you know who the Avengers are?”

Damian pauses, shaking his head. “No. Should I?”

Murdock simply frowns. “No, don’t worry about it.”

Damian nods slowly, leaning back against the couch. “I suppose.”

It’s quiet for a while, Murdock going back to sliding his hand across the surface of his document. Damian watches him with a contemplative frown. He really should kill him. His mother was going to be  _ so  _ angry when she found out that Damian had had opportunities to do so and hadn’t. The problem was, Murdock was… Well, Damian couldn’t describe exactly  _ why _ , but… He didn’t  _ want _ to kill Murdock. By all logic, he  _ should _ want to. His mother wouldn’t be happy to find out that he’d let him live on  _ purpose _ . 

"Damian, is there something wrong?”

“No, Murdock,” Damian shakes his head. “Nothing is wrong.”

It was a cheap lie, but Damian couldn’t think of a way to tell Murdock that something  _ was _ wrong. Instead, he decides that suffering in silence is his best option. He closes his eyes. He knew his mother would come eventually. The dread that suddenly pools into him at the very thought is immense. For a brief moment, Damian has the thought that perhaps… Perhaps it would be for the best if she didn’t.


	10. Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt has some explaining to do.

Matt runs a hand down his face as he leans against the kitchen counter. Damian was fast asleep in the bedroom, his heartbeat keeping a calm and steady rhythm. The DS had definitely helped, but it’d been almost a week, and Matt’s smart enough to know that his small apartment isn’t going to keep the kid occupied for too much longer. Matt also couldn’t work from home forever. He was already going to be needed for a meeting, according to Foggy, and there was definitely going to be a time in the future where he’ll be needed in court. The meeting would probably be fine. It shouldn’t take more than an hour, two at the  _ most _ . But if he was needed in court…

Well, that could take all day, and Matt wasn’t too keen on leaving Damian alone that long.

Matt sighs as he walks over to the window, pulling the cowl of his Daredevil suit over his head. He slips out into the crisp September night air, tilting his head as he listens for any signs of trouble. 

There. Three blocks down. Two muggers, one woman, one fairly young child. Matt scowls as he races across the rooftops, flipping down to land between them. He knocks one of them out in the first hit, but he’s lost the element of surprise with the second one. Matt stiffens when they aim at the woman instead of him. 

“Hands up, freak!” The man shouts. “Or I shoot!” 

Matt frowns sharply at the man, putting his arms over his head. “Don’t.”

The man’s heartbeat gives Matt an extra second of realizing the man’s going to shoot anyways. He leaps in front of the woman as the man rests his finger on the trigger. There’s a white hot instant of pain when the bullet hits Matt in the shoulder, but he bites back a cry as he leaps forward at the man with the gun.

The man’s knocked out quickly, but Matt kicks him a couple of times afterwards out of spite. He looks back at the still shocked woman and her kid, gives them a nod, and then takes off. 

Matt pauses on the rooftop, gently touching his bleeding shoulder. That had been stupid. He should have just disarmed the man instead of jumping in front of the bullet like that. He’d probably have had enough time to. 

It’s not too bad though. The bullet went all the way through, and it’s just a flesh wound. He’d be fine. He cocks his head to the side again. There wasn’t any point going back to patch it up if he was just planning on coming back and getting more injuries anyways. 

By the end of the night, Matt’s peppered in enough bruises to impress just about anyone stupid enough to put on a cowl and fight crime at night. The bullet wound had stopped bleeding… Mostly. He had a small cut on his other arm, but it wasn’t even bad enough to need stitches. 

Matt sucks in a sharp breath, pulling the cowl off and tossing it to the side. He grabs a medkit from the closet and gets to work on stitching himself up. No need to call Claire if he could handle it on his own. 

He absolutely freezes when he hears Damian’s heartbeat. His sweaty cowl is too far away for him to slip it on in time, and he’s definitely not going to get changed before that door opens. 

Damian steps out of the room. He raises an eyebrow at his shoulder, the top part of his suit pulled off so that he could reach it. Other than that, he doesn’t seem the least bit surprised. “Murdock, whatever strange pants you are wearing, they are hideous. I know you are blind, but that is no excuse. I suggest you execute whomsoever has told you they are a good look. They were wrong.”

Matt pauses. That had not been the anticipated response he’d been expecting from Damian. At all. “Um. Thank you.”

Damian nods sharply. “I am aware that it is late. However, I cannot sleep.”

Matt nods slowly. The kid walks right over and plops down on the couch next to Matt. He frowns at the shoulder. “That needs stitches, Murdock.”

“I know,” Matt sighs. “That’s why I’ve got a needle and some thread in my hands.”

Damian looks over at said hands. He nods sharply in approval. “Good.”

Matt shakes his head, wiping a cloth over the wound again. It had had time to bleed a little more with the momentary distraction of Damian waking up. Damian sits quietly as he waits for Matt to stitch himself up. 

Damian suddenly stands up, walking over to the Daredevil cowl. “Murdock. What is this?”

Matt inwardly curses, his brain scrambling to come up with some sort of excuse. All that comes out of his mouth is a long, “Uhhhhhh…” 

Damian inspects it before he squints back at Matt. “You are attempting to hide something from me, aren’t you Murdock.” 

It’s not a question. Damian’s very confident in the statement, and Matt doesn’t miss the underlying sound of hurt. He doesn’t want to entirely lose the kid’s trust though. He listens for a minute before he makes up his mind. 

“Damian, I… Can explain. If you’ll listen,” Matt leans back against the couch with a sigh.

“Is… This what you have been doing every night after I go to sleep?” Damian frowns, his gaze on the cowl. 

Matt sucks in a breath, mentally preparing himself. On one hand, he’d be explaining it to a nine year old. On the other hand, Damian was raised as an assassin and would probably protest any “childish treatment”. The kid sits down on the opposite end of the couch, his head finally lifting up to look at Matt. “Alright, Damian…” Matt finally begins after a moment. “They call me Daredevil. Um. It… It all started when I was eight years old…”

Damian sits patiently, listening the entire time. When Matt finishes, Damian tilts his head. “Could I help you with this endeavor?” 

_ “Absolutely not,” _ Matt shakes his head. 

“But Murdock-”

“Damian,” Matt cuts him off. This was exactly what he’d been afraid of. “I don’t want you to fight out there,  _ not _ because you couldn’t. You’re very skilled, I know that. But… I would never forgive myself if you got hurt out there.” 

“Murdock, I have been hurt before,” Damian frowns. 

“No, because… Damian, I know you don’t understand this right now, but… You  _ shouldn’t _ have been. Okay? You shouldn’t have to have been hurt like that. Not by  _ anyone _ . And I sure as hell am not going to let you follow me around in dangerous situations.”

“But you go into dangerous situations,” Damian huffs, his arms folding over his chest. 

“Yeah, well, I’m an adult. And until you’re eighteen, you’re not going to be going out,” Matt sighs, but he tries to keep his voice firm about this. There is  _ no way _ he is going to let Damian go out there. He would  _ prefer _ Damian not go out there at  _ all _ , but he couldn’t do much about it after the kid was eighteen anyways. But for now…

“That hardly seems fair,” Damian complains. 

“I’m sure you’ll get over it.”

“You cannot  _ make me _ stay in here,” Damian frowns at him. Technically true. But that didn’t mean Matt wasn’t going to try. 

“Do you really want to test that though?” Matt stands up. He puts his leftover stitching supplies away, then heads into his room. He changes quickly into some pajamas, then walks into the kitchen. Damian is still sulking on the couch, and Matt sighs. “Would you like some tea?”

“I will accept it,” Damian sighs heavily. “...Are you  _ positive _ I cannot come-”

“Yes, Damian,” Matt cuts him off. “I don’t doubt your fighting capabilities. I’m positive you’re exceptional. But even the most skilled people can get hurt, and I don’t want that to happen to you. Okay?”

“Fine,” Damian huffs out, and Matt breathes a quick sigh of relief. He gets started on the promised tea. He has hopes that it’ll help Damian fall asleep. 

Once the tea’s finished, he comes back over and hands Damian a cup, sitting down next to him with his own. Damian pauses for a brief moment before he turns his head back to Matt. “...Thank you.”

Matt gives him a warm smile. “You’re welcome, Damian.”

“...When I am  _ eighteen _ , will you allow me to come?”

Matt simply hums. “We’ll see. You’ve got  _ plenty _ of time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!! I had most of it written, but stuff happened. Hopefully the next one will be sooner. I'm not totally proud of this chapter but it's been so long since I've posted so here it is.


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